Are those that eat meat and are aware of the arguments for vegetarianism bad people?

I am currently eating a steak. It came from a dead animal - one who most likely didn't have the greatest life, one could say suffered - One could go so far as to say the animal I am eating used to live a life of torture.

I am perfectly well aware of the arguments for not eating meat. The arguments against animal abuse. I have watched the videos of animals being slaughtered because I wanted information to make an informed opinion.

It wouldn't be a lie for me to admit that I agree with all the arguments from the non meat eater/vegetarian crowd. I agree with them almost completely. That the animals do in fact suffer more than they should.

But honestly - eating this steak makes me feel good. I enjoy chewing it, tasting it - the red and bloody steak it becomes with butter and pepper. It's delicious to me.

I guess it's more that I just don't care about the suffering the animals enough for me to give up my delicious steak. Or veal chop. Or rack of lamb.

What say you, rational minds? Am I a 'bad person' for admitting that the arguments make sense and yet I choose to simply ignore them for my own one could say - selfish and short-term desires?

Replies to This Discussion

Heres the real question: If meat can be raised an eaten ethically, why are we torturing it in the process?

Why are calves taken from their mother, crammed into a 1.8 square meter cage, and fed nothing but milk to become veal when they could be raised on pasture and milk, and still become veal without the tiny cage and awful diet?

The point I am getting at here is this: eating meat is not necessarily a bad thing. It's entirely natural after all, and our bodies are somewhat used to it. It's the means of production that isn't good. In my mind, that should be controlled by an industry regulating group, and if they fail, government.

Yep. I'm wondering why you ask...it doesn't seem too difficult of an answer to divine. Are you feeling guilty, looking for excuses, or trying to get other people to change their eating habits...what? This so weird. Hey guys, 'I'm doing this thing, which I know is wrong because it causes suffering, because I like to do it. Am I still a good person?' WTF. Please don't apply these ethics when making decisions in other, more impacting areas of your life. Not meaning to get personal about this but unless you're coming at this from the Peta perspective of recruiting vegans, I'm a bit worried about the types of choices you might be making.

If you think that the average head of livestock lives a life of 'torture' then you are either ignorant and incredibly mislead or else you are just a twit looking for a new religion. Either way you are not a bad person - just brainwashed like any other theist.

Perhaps you should actually spend some time at a livestock operation rather than letting a single book, written by a single activist, who collected anecdotal 'evidence' to support a specific agenda, shape your views. If you are willing to let your views be so easily shaped by someone with so little experience with reality, then please stay away from the bible.

That sounds like a company whose products I would like to avoid. I would like to avoid a lot of factory farmed products - and I do make an effort to do so. That isn't enough for the vegan, however, who feels that the very definition of livestock infers some immense suffering. If you've spent a good portion of your life on farms them you know this is not the case - and anyone suggesting otherwise is either grossly misled or deluded.

That being said, please explain why the vegan religion is the only means of eliminating companies like Tyson Foods.

The point of calling it a religion is that it is one. They have an arbitrary dogma that can't be reconciled with facts (they claim animal abuse, then refuse to eat oysters). They are evangelical - you just can't eat your burger in the presence of a vegan without them whimpering some pathetic bullshit. They believe their doctrines and dogmas provide them with moral absolution. How much more religious can you get?

Vegetarianism is a religion, and atheism is a religion, only if baldness is a hair colour, as they say.
And not a single one of the vegetarians or vegans I know are the tiniest bit evangelical.
No idea what oysters have got to do with it.